David Tudor Quotations

I persist in performing.

Loudspeakers should be made to be destroyed and... disposable.

I've never been able to arouse any interest in myself for digitally produced sound, and so the computer turns me off.

I've always felt that there's a point where a piece seems to be alive, that is, living. And that's the point where I know the composition is finished.

If you put yourself in a situation of unpredictability and then find that it's completely possible to accept it, then you become an observer.

Most electronic equipment uses the principle of amplification. You need filters, modulators and mixing equipment which have gain stages. By piling these components up, I was able to work without any sound generators and I made several pieces in that manner.

The basic notion was the idea that the loudspeaker should have a voice which was unique and not just an instrument of reproduction, but an instrument unto itself.

Take the classic experiment of using ordinary feedback: just take the output of something and feed it back into the input. Those of us who do that have had really rich experiences. And it is obvious that that line of experimentation can continue.

Performing is very much like cooking: putting it all together, raising the temperature.

I am perfectly willing for my music to exist with somebody else's taste.